Why are there so many homeless people on the streets in the United States? What can we learn from their stories? And what can you, our readers, do to improve the situation?

That’s the focus of our project, Outside in America.

We want to explain why we launched this project and important ways in which it differs from other content you’ll read on the Guardian. But before we do that, we invite you to sign up to receive our monthly newsletter, which we’ll use to keep you informed about homelessness issues.

Homelessness is not new. It has been a feature of American cities, towns and rural areas for decades. But there is a growing consensus – particularly across the western US, which is the focus of our project – that the problem is worsening, reaching levels that should not be tolerated in one of the richest countries in the world.

So we’re bringing you this series of stories about the people and places that are grappling with the homelessness crisis. Over the next year we’ll publish news articles, in-depth reporting, investigations, films and interactive graphics.

All of this will be available on the Guardian. But you may also read some of our stories in local newspapers that are sold by homeless people on the streets: publications such as the Denver Voice, San Francisco’s Street Sheet, Portland’s Street Roots and Seattle’s Real Change News.

We’re giving our content to these publications because we want to do our part to help alleviate homelessness.

We also want to make it easier for you to take action. That’s why we partnered with Speakable, a technology company that facilitates civic engagement, to embed their “Action Button” in our content, so readers can easily take action to support homelessness solutions. An Action Button might offer you a chance to volunteer at a homeless shelter, or donate to an organisation that provides low-income housing or distributes food to homeless people.

Speakable will independently vet Action Button partners for accountability, transparency and reputation, using a variety of evaluation tools and referrals from trusted sources. To avoid conflicts of interest, Outside in America’s journalists and editors have no advance knowledge of which organisations are selected or promoted by Speakable.

Outside In America is funded, in part, by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. All our content is editorially independent, with a remit to focus on the homelessness crisis in the western US. The project is anchored from the Guardian’s west coast bureau, in San Francisco, and is overseen by our homelessness editor, Alastair Gee.

You can contact him at alastair.gee@theguardian.com.

All our journalism follows GNM’s published editorial code. The Guardian is committed to open journalism, recognising that the best understanding of the world is achieved when we collaborate, share knowledge, encourage debate, welcome challenge, and harness the expertise of specialists and their communities. The only restriction to the Guardian’s coverage on this site is where the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is prohibited under US law from directly funding or earmarking funds to: (a) influence the outcome of any domestic or foreign election for public office; or (b) support lobbying or other attempts to influence legislation (local, state, federal, or foreign).

This means any communications to the public in which a view is expressed about a specific legislative proposal, and the recipients of the communications are urged through a ‘call to action’ to contact government officials, must provide a reasoned, objective consideration of facts and issues in a full and fair manner that enables third parties to develop their own positions on any legislation that may be discussed. Unless otherwise stated, all statements and materials, including any statements regarding specific legislation, reflect the views of the individual contributors and not those of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation nor the Guardian. Our Global Development site is also funded by the Gates Foundation. You can read more about content funding at the Guardian here.